CBRE has written a piece of company history with its debut appearance at the top of EG’s annual ranking of deals volumes. The US giant finished narrowly ahead in an extremely tight top three, making it EG’s most active agent for the first time since records began at the start of the millennium.
The rankings present a detailed breakdown by both sector and region to show which companies transacted the most deals in 2016. The results offer intriguing evidence of just how significantly property changed in what was a tumultuous year of national and global events.
EG ANNUAL RANKINGS: TOP 20 AGENTS
| Overall national | Deals |
|---|---|
CBRE |
1,788 |
| Lambert Smith Hampton | 1,774 |
| Cushman & Wakefield | 1,751 |
| JLL | 1,472 |
| Savills | 1,339 |
| Colliers International | 1,136 |
| Knight Frank | 1,076 |
| Ryden | 580 |
| Christie + Co | 489 |
| Shepherd Commercial | 457 |
In essence, CBRE weathered the storm of 2016 more effectively than its rivals. Its table-topping combined number of deals was down by more than 25% on the figure that Cushman & Wakefield notched up to finish first in 2015 and would only have been good enough for fifth place in that year.
Nevertheless, it was an impressive display from CBRE which saw it haul C&W back into the pack after just one year of deals dominance following its merger with DTZ. The previous merger on a comparable scale was between JLL and King Sturge in 2011 and that created a four-year spell in which JLL ruled the roost as the UK’s most active agent.
CBRE won overall by finishing top in offices, retail and investment and it also did more deals in London than anyone else. Pushing it close, however, was Lambert Smith Hampton whose exceptional performances in the industrial sector nationally and across nearly all sectors in the South East were almost enough to enable it to reclaim the title it called its own throughout the noughties.
C&W’s slip to third was an extremely close run thing but the key battleground proved to be the retail sector: it eclipsed the rest of the market in 2015 but was pegged back into second place last year as conditions deteriorated.
Also making its own bit of history is Fleurets, which for the first time has overtaken Christie & Co to become the most active agent in the leisure and hotels sector. Meanwhile, Cooke & Arkwright has claimed the top spot in Wales from LSH, meaning that of 12 geographic areas across the UK there are seven in which a regional player is the most active agent.
Many thanks to all companies who submitted deals. The full list of results will be available shortly via this link.
EAST MIDLANDS
Overall winner • Innes England
The East Midlands is home to two prolific domestic all-rounders in Innes England and FHP Property Consultants and the former has outscored the latter to retain its title as most active agent for the 10th year in a row. Innes England remained top in office and industrial and also overtook both Colliers and FHP in investments to cap an impressive year. FHP was unshakable in retail, however, LSH provided the most meaningful challenge from the nationals.
EAST OF ENGLAND
Overall winner • Barker Story Matthews
Barker Story Matthews has made it four consecutive overall wins with what is essentially a rerun of 2015’s result in which it edged out Bidwells to top the East Anglian office and industrial sectors while Roche Chartered Surveyors finished highest in retail. Savills was the most prominent of the nationals and can celebrate some success after rising from third to first in investments.
GREATER LONDON
Overall winner • CBRE
CBRE has pushed home its advantage in the UK’s most richly rewarded market after notching up a huge lead in offices and reclaiming the retail top spot from C&W in a year in which CBRE bought London luxury retail specialist Michael Horowitz & Company. But it was not all plain sailing as Savills overtook it to take the honours in investments, which is a far busier sector in the capital than elsewhere in the country. Meanwhile, JLL hung on to its industrial title ahead of Glenny and Davis Coffer Lyons remains the most active in leisure and hotels.
NORTH EAST
Overall winner • Sanderson Weatherall
Sanderson Weatherall has retained its North East title despite the stiffest of competition from the new boys on the block Connect Property North East, who formed just two years ago. With a hugely impressive first place in retail – ahead of joint Metrocentre agent @retail – and seconds in office and industrial, CPNE is making huge strides forward. However, Sanderson Weatherall topped the office market and put in a useful performance in leisure and hotels to withstand the challenge. Naylors secured top spot in the industrial market.
NORTH WEST
Overall winner • CBRE
With another convincing first place in the region’s office market and also top spot for investment, CBRE has held onto its overall North West title at a relative canter. It finished down the field in retail and industrial, the former of which saw LSH depose Cushman & Wakefield from the top spot and the latter witnessed a hugely impressive performance from B8 Real Estate to rise from fourth in 2015 to first this time, making it the only non-national player to sit atop any of the North West podiums.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Overall winner • Lambert Smith Hampton
Lambert Smith Hampton has repeated last year’s feat of topping four categories and romping to overall victory. It has been the dominant agent in the region since it took over the all-conqering BTW Shiells in 2014. It is still not quite the clean sweep, however, as Osborne King has maintained its lead in leisure and hotels and there are signs the competition could be hotting up elsewhere with O’Connor Kennedy Turtle moving up to second place in four of the five sectors.
SCOTLAND
Overall winner • Ryden
Bookies would give extremely long odds on Ryden losing its Scottish title and there are no signs of this happening any time soon. It far outstripped its nearest competitor in offices while hanging on to its industrial title and reclaiming the investment honours from JLL. The other notable star performer was Shepherd Commercial, which knocked C&W from the top spot in retail and replaced Colliers as king in leisure and hotels.
SOUTH EAST (excluding London)
Overall winner • Lambert Smith Hampton
Lambert Smith Hampton has enjoyed a longstanding commanding presence in the Home Counties and that has not changed despite a general drop in the region’s activity. It combined a huge lead in offices with wins in industrial and investment to retain its overall title, while CBRE replaced C&W at the top of the retail rankings. There was also an impressive showing from regional specialist Kirkby & Diamond which climbed from ninth to second in the office market.
SOUTH WEST
Overall winner • Alder King
Extending its South West winning streak to 16 years is Bristol-headquartered Alder King which once again chalked up leads in offices, industrial and investment. Retail provided the solitary blot on its report card as it disappeared entirely from the top five while, conversely, Savills came from nowhere last year to head the field this. Leisure and hotels are proportionally more important to the South West’s property market than elsewhere and Christie + Co has maintained pole position here.
WALES
Overall winner • Cooke & Arkwright
The top spot in Wales tends to alternate between London-based nationals and regional players, with LSH and EJ Hales providing the main competition. But this year a consistently solid Cooke & Arkwright has claimed the title for the regionals despite not coming first in any individual categories. There is a different name sitting atop each of the different sector types showing how finely-balanced the Welsh market is.
WEST MIDLANDS
Overall winner • Bulleys
The West Midlands is geographically well-situated to house industrial and distribution facilities and the importance of this to the overall mix can be seen in the way Bulleys has taken the top position thanks almost entirely to a barnstorming performance in industrial. KWB and C&W have retained their respective office and retail titles, while CBRE has come from outside last year’s top five to take the investment honours.
YORKSHIRE
Overall winner • Carter Towler
In the East-West battle of the Yorkshire agents, Leeds’ Carter Towler has retained the title it won for the first time last year from Hull’s PPH Commercial. It may be some consolation to PPH to learn it did more deals than Carter Towler, but many of these were south of the Humber and hence outside the Yorkshire boundary. Meanwhile, CBRE remained number one in retail and Knight Frank was unstoppable in industrial, particularly in South Yorkshire.
• Click here for more information on the 2016 Deals competition and the full list of results
